Eric Swalwell raises profile in knife fight

It’s hard for newcomers to Congress, especially if they’re in the minority, to get much attention in Washington. But freshman Rep. Eric Swalwell, the East Bay Democrat who unseated veteran Pete Stark last November, may have found a way.

Swalwell has taken a lead in fighting Transportation Security Administration administrator John Pistole on his decision to lift the ban on pocketknives at airport security, along with novelty bats, billiard cues, ski poles, hockey sticks, lacrosse sticks and golf clubs (up to two). The new policy is to take effect Apr. 25.

On Tuesday, Swalwell issued a blistering attack on Pistole’s defense of the policy. “He’s basically saying he can walk and not chew gum, or he can chew gum but not walk, but he can’t walk and chew gum,” Swalwell told us, characterizing TSA’s stance as “looking for knives prevents us from looking for liquids.”

Pistole last week wrote a defense of the policy, noting that members of Congress, starting last January, are among those allowed to breeze through security under special protocols for low-risk passengers. Others include children under age 12, persons over age 75, World War II vets visiting Washington, pilots, flight attendants, federal judges, state and local law enforcement officers, active military and eight million members of the public who have signed up for TSA’s pre-check program.

Swalwell isn’t alone. Rep. Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat running for Senate, lit onto the issue with his “No Knives Act”. A bunch of Bay Area House Democrats, including Barbara Lee (Oakland), Zoe Lofgren (San Jose), Jared Huffman (Marin) and Mike Honda (San Jose), were among 133 House Dems who signed a letter from Swalwell and committee chair Bennie Thompson protesting the policy. The policy has also stirred a backlash from flight attendants, pilots and airlines..

Pistole is not backing down. In his letter he said since 2005, TSA has permitted small scissors and knitting needles and since 2007, under Congressional directive, butane lighters. Markey and then Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, issued the same warnings about scissors eight years ago that Markey and Swalwell are now directing at pocket knives.

Since the scissor ban was lifted, Pistole said “more than 3 billion passengers have flown throughout the United States without a single reported disruption from these objects.”

At a hearing last month by the House Homeland Security panel on transportation, on which Swalwell sits, Pistole said sharp objects are accessible on planes now, by breaking, say, a wine bottle.

Swalwell said Pistole admitted at the hearing that incidents involving knives were rare before 9/11 too. And since 9/11 under the knife ban, “we’ve had zero incidents,” Swalwell said. “That number can’t get better but it can get worse.”

More than 90 percent of flight attendants and pilots no longer go through physical screening.

Pistole is trying to implement risk-based screening, which focuses on suspicious behavior rather than objects, moving away from such “security theater” as forcing the elderly to remove their shoes. Pistole said intelligence assessments show the biggest threat comes from explosives and that TSA screeners widely believe lifting the ban would help them focus on those. He also insisted that he informed unions and key members of Congress before making his decision, which came from an agency risk analysis in 2010.

Pistole has found unlikely support from a Republican, Matt Salmon of Arizona, who accused colleagues of an “ill-conceived attempt to thwart the new TSA rules, effectively freezing the permitted items list as it exists today, micromanaging TSA and shackling its hands.”

Swalwell, who said he flies 20,000 miles a month going to and from Washington, said his objective is to get TSA to back off. “To just blanketly say everyone, regardless of your risk, your mental health background, your criminal background, everyone can carry one of these weapons on board, that is reckless and dangerous.”